Date: 8th January 2015 at 5:00pm
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Chelsea’s draw against Southampton was significant being their last match of 2014, but also as it marks the half way point of the current season.

2014 has been, as ever, an interesting year for Chelsea supporters. Last season petered out in ultimately disappointing fashion in terms of lack of trophies, but we all understood that the team was not yet Jose Mourinho’s preferred team, and was in still in development.  This season we have seen something approaching what Mourinho clearly wants for this side. More flair and creativity allied to the tried and tested Mourinho dictat of solidity at the back. Thou shall not pass!

The Southampton match was redolent of many frustrating matches last season. Chelsea dominated much of the match, and battered Saint’s for the later part of it, but they held out resolutely for a well-earned draw.  It was frustrating, and without doubt Chelsea left with the feeling that two points had been dropped.

4539088Harsher still was the telling stat that Chelsea only had one shot on target – the one where Hazard scored with a superb run and shot. Chelsea’s tendency to ‘overplay’ around the edge of the opposition’s penalty area certainly reminded me of last season where too many points were dropped for the sake of a more direct and clinical approach.

For all of Hazard’s obvious brilliance he needs to shoot and score more. This was his first away goal of the season. If he can add more goals to his game he will surely be up there with Ronaldo and Messi, which is where I believe he is destined to be. Overall he is a joy to watch and it has been a real privilege to watch him developing under Mourinho’s guidance in to a truly world class player and one who you would willingly pay to see play (even though I do anyway!).

Dropping points away seems to be an annoying pattern in the first half of this season. Although Chelsea secured superb victories away at Anfield and more recently the wind swept Potteries, they have suffered their first and only defeat away at Newcastle together with draws against Sunderland, Man Utd and City. There is a good case to be made that they should have come home with all three points against the last three. Had they done so then the gap between Chelsea and Man City would be a great deal wider than the current three points.

The home form by contrast has been perfect. Nine games, nine victories, 22 goals scored and only 3 conceded! If Chelsea can be as clinical away as they are at home they will win the Premier League at a canter, but the current gap and their form away from home show’s that nothing can be taken for granted.

Ultimately you need a bit of luck to go with your football. Fortunately not too much damage was done by dropping points against Southampton as Man City somehow contrived to let a two goal lead slip at home against Burnley to draw 2-2, thereby remaining three points behind Chelsea.

When Mourinho dismissed idle talk of Chelsea going throughout the season unbeaten, he mentioned that things happen in football to conspire against you. Lady luck or events outside of your control are the reason why it is so difficult, or even impossible for a side to go unbeaten for an entire Premier league season.

The dogged and lucky performances of teams such as Southampton who defended with 11 men behind the ball as if their lives depended on it are a case in point. But even more apposite are the decisions that either go for you or against you.

We had a prime example of this courtesy of Antony Taylor against Southampton. Cesc Fabregas should have been awarded a 4538999penalty rather than an erroneous yellow card for diving. Had the penalty been awarded, Chelsea would have gone 2-1 up and I’m sure would have secured all three points, and I wouldn’t be moaning about the number of points dropped away from home in an article for IBT!

I would like to believe that Taylor’s decision was more down to incompetence rather than any ‘campaign’ against Chelsea for their perceived diving in recent matches. However, the result is the same: no penalty; a yellow card for Fabregas and two points dropped. That’s football as we used to say, and hopefully things will even themselves out over the season (although I have always felt that to be a somewhat fatuous belief!).

Whether they do or not is of course moot, but underlines the importance of taking your chances when you get them. You have to take luck and errors by officials out of the equation. I have a sneaking suspicion that the second half of the season may well prove to be as close as the first half has been. For the sake of my ticker, I hope that Mourinho works hard to imbue the side with a more ruthless and clinical edge to make sure they take their chances and make the gap as wide as possible before securing what will be a well-deserved fifth league title, and their first since 2010. For me, that gap has certainly been too big!

2014 has seen some of the best football I have seen played by a Chelsea side, and all in all it’s been a good year. Roll on 2015 with more of the same please and some silverware to go with it please!

In fact more like fast forward than roll on, so Chelsea supporters can pretend that yesterday’s New Year’s Day massacre at White Hart Lane never happened!

What a horrible start to the year, and certainly no cure for a New Year’s Eve hangover. Tottenham are Chelsea supporter’s ‘public enemy number one’, and the feeling is mutual, so to lose up there is the bitterest pill to swallow. I should have stuck with a couple of ‘Nurofen’!

4541251But what happened? In truth, even though Chelsea went a goal up, they were never really at the races. Tottenham, and Harry Kane in particular (he’s one of their own apparently!) played out of their skin. Chelsea looked jaded and there will now be inevitable questions about Mourinho’s lack of rotation. Eight Chelsea players played in each one of the four Christmas fixtures, and they looked like they had.

Of course the one shining light was Eden Hazard who was up for the fight, scored a superb goal and got kicked all over the park with no protection from the referee whatsoever. Jose might be rather one eyed about the so called ‘campaign’ against Chelsea, but he is spot on about the rough treatment that Hazard gets.

What concerns me is that Mourinho’s lack of rotation (yesterday’s starting eleven was without a doubt Chelsea’s best) may be a sign that either he doesn’t trust the squad players or that they might not be good enough. This questions whether the depth we have in the squad is good enough to fight on all fronts.

In mitigation, Oscar, Schurrle, Ramires and Remy have suffered from illness, injury and a loss of form, but it still begs the question. When one sees Mo Salah coming on to save the day, a player who has looked horribly out of his depth since his arrival at Chelsea, then it is a cause for concern. What a price a certain Frank Lampard coming off the bench instead?

Perhaps Chelsea may need to dip in to the transfer market this January after all to bolster the squad. Or perhaps some of the squad and youth players need to up their game and prove that they are good enough.

Either way, it looks like 2015 will be tougher than we thought. Sometimes you just have to take it on the chin and accept that on the day you were beaten by the better side, no matter how painful that is to accept in this case. Oh well, onwards and upwards, it’s the FA Cup this Sunday. Hopefully our favourite competition will flush these unwelcome New Year’s Day blues away!

First published by International Business Times

 

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